It is common practice in the production of a part to first design the part and then produce a prototype of the part. The prototyping process involves a considerable amount of time, effort and expense. Once a prototype has been produced, the design is evaluated. The process is then repeated until the design has been optimized.
Once a design has been optimized, the next step is production. Many production parts are molded or cast. Since the design time and tooling costs for the parts are typically very high, the production of the parts are usually only practical when produced in a high volume.
There exists a need in the design and production arts for the capability of rapidly and reliably moving from the design stage to the prototype stage and ultimately to production. The ability to move directly from computer designs for such parts to virtually immediate prototypes and large scale production has economic benefits as well.
Computer aided design (CAD) advancements have helped in reducing the time required for proceeding from the prototype phase to the production phase. CAD systems allow for efficient study and manipulation of a design.
It would be desirable to develop a process for prototyping and production of parts or castings wherein a time required is minimized and efficiency is maximized.